A Quantity Surveyor and former president of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), Femi Onashile, has called on the Federal Government to deliver social housing for the majority of the people through revenue from taxes.
He said the only time government provided social housing was in the administration of Alhaji Lateef Jakande when he engaged in massive housing development, delivering mass housing that enabled low to middle income earners own houses. He charged the Federal Government to explore avenues to encourage the private sector to provide infrastructure through tax rebate.
Onashile also took on the banking sector insisting that the way they operate is discouraging the construction sector with the high interest rate they charge not minding that construction projects have long gestation period.
Stressing the neglect of local skills in the sector, he recalled how the Minister of Works & Housing, Babatunde Fashola, encouraged them to meet global standards by involving them in projects.
Calling for reforms in contract document, he lamented that Nigeria is still using contract forms of 1963, noting that the old contract form is only about arbitration and litigation which is fast disappearing in contract disputes. He attributed the recent PID case where Nigeria was fined $9billion in PID case because those who were involved in the contract used the archaic system which is apparently not used elsewhere.
He said: “The PID company and their Nigeria collaborators used the archaic system in contracting and project execution. They know in their country those things have changed to adjudication and mediation.There must a strong will for us as a country to overcome this PID case and let the world know that we know what we are doing here as a country’’.
Source: thenationonlineng
